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Gio Urshela, fiery Yankees walk off and grab first place

CC Sabathia and Luke Voit never forget. The Yankees’ lefty was fired up last weekend when Voit got plunked by Rays pitcher Yonny Chirinos, but he was taken out of that game before he had a chance to do anything more than bark at the pitcher.

Friday, Sabathia made Rays’ designated hitter Austin Meadows dance and dodge two 92-mph fastballs in the fifth inning. On replays, Sabathia appeared to yell “Yeah, I was trying to hit his ass,” as he walked back to the Yankees dugout at the end of the inning.

Sabathia missed his target. Voit’s revenge, however, was a ninth-inning home run started a dramatic rally that ended with Gio Urshela’s walkoff single that gave the Yankees a 4-3 win at the Stadium.

The win was the fourth straight for the Yankees (27-16) and gave them the lead in the American League East, passing the Rays, who had held first place since March 31. The Rays (26-16) are now a half-game back.

It was the Yankees’ third walkoff win of the season, but Urshela’s first walkoff hit.

After Voit’s home run, Gary Sanchez followed with a single. Gleyber Torres doubled and the Rays chose to walk Clint Frazier to load the bases. Thairo Estrada, running for Sanchez, scored on a passed ball.

Urshela ended it with the single to deep right-center field.

That got Chad Green, who was making his second appearance since returning from a demotion to the minors, off the hook. On Sunday, against these same Rays and after a 43-minute power-outage delay, Green struck out the side for a perfect ninth inning.

They had four players hit in the series last weekend. Last season, Sabathia was ejected, suspended and fined for hitting Jesus Sucre at Tropicana Field in his final regular-season start. After hitting him, Sabathia swore at the Rays’ dugout, letting them — and MLB — that his throw was intentional.

Saturday night, when Voit was hit on the shoulder, the big lefty was on his feet in a split second, barking at Yonny Chirinos and the Rays. Voit has been hit five times this season, second only to the Royals’ Alex Gordon’s eight.

He then led off the bottom of the ninth with his 11th home run of the season, off Jose Alvarado.

By then, Sabathia was just a very interested spectator after he gave the Yankees his longest start of the year to date.

The big lefty was sharp Friday night. He held the Rays to one run, a Willy Adames fourth-inning, leadoff home run. He did not walk a batter and struck out three over six innings. Adam Ottavino came in and walked a batter and struck out one in the seventh, and Tommy Kahnle was brought in to face Meadows in his third at-bat of the night.

The Rays’ young designated hitter had done some damage against the Yankees last weekend, hitting a pair of homers and driving in three runs in the three-game series at Tropicana Field. Friday night, he went 2-for-3 and avoided Sabathia’s revenge.